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April Airline On-Time Performance Higher Than Last Year and March

April Airline On-Time Performance Higher Than Last Year and March

Thursday, June 3, 2010 - The nation's largest
airlines had a rate of on-time flights this past April that was higher than the
same month last year and the rate posted in March 2010, according to the Air
Travel Consumer Report released today by the U.S. Department of Transportation
(DOT).

According to information filed with
the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), a part of DOT's Research and
Innovative Technology Administration (RITA), the 18 carriers reporting on-time
performance recorded an overall on-time arrival rate of 85.3 percent in April, better
than the 79.1 percent on-time rate of April 2009 and March 2010's 80.0 percent.

The monthly report also includes data
on lengthy tarmac delays, flight cancellations and the causes of flight delays
by the reporting carriers, as well as information on airline bumping, reports
of mishandled baggage filed with the carriers, and consumer service, disability
and discrimination complaints received by DOT's Aviation Consumer Protection
Division. This report also includes reports of incidents
involving pets traveling by air, as required to be filed by U.S. carriers.

Cancellations

The consumer report includes BTS data on the number of
domestic flights canceled by the reporting carriers. In April, the
carriers canceled 0.7 percent of their scheduled domestic flights, a lower rate
than the 1.5 percent cancellation rates posted in both April 2009 and March 2010.

Tarmac Delays

In April, the carriers filing
on-time performance data reported that .001 percent of their scheduled flights
had tarmac delays of three hours or more, down from .005 percent in March. There was one flight with a tarmac delay of
four hours or more in April.

Causes of Flight Delays

In April, the carriers filing on-time
performance data reported that 4.45 percent of their flights were delayed by
aviation system delays, compared to 6.03 percent in March; 4.71 percent by
late-arriving aircraft, compared to 6.44 percent in March; 4.30 percent by
factors within the airline's control, such as maintenance or crew problems, compared
to 5.24 percent in March; 0.33 percent by extreme weather, compared to 0.54
percent in March; and 0.04 percent for security reasons, compared to 0.06
percent in March. Weather is a factor in
both the extreme-weather category and the aviation-system category. This includes
delays due to the re-routing of flights by DOT's Federal Aviation
Administration in consultation with the carriers involved. Weather is also a factor in delays attributed
to late-arriving aircraft, although airlines do not report specific causes in
that category.

Data collected by BTS also shows
the percentage of late flights delayed by weather, including those reported in
either the category of extreme weather or included in National Aviation System
delays. In April, 35.21 percent of late flights were delayed by weather, down
20.66 percent from April 2009, when 44.38 percent of late flights were delayed
by weather, and down 13.45 percent from March when 40.68 percent of late flights
were delayed by weather.

Detailed information on flight
delays and their causes is available on the BTS site on the World Wide Web at http://www.bts.gov.

Mishandled Baggage

The U.S.
carriers reporting flight delays and mishandled baggage data posted a
mishandled baggage rate of 2.89 reports per 1,000 passengers in April, an
improvement over April 2009's rate of 3.89 and March 2010's 3.72 rate.

Incidents Involving
Pets

In April, carriers reported seven incidents
involving the loss, death or injury of a pet while traveling by air, higher
than the zero incidents in April 2009 and higher than the one incident posted
in March 2010. April's incidents
involved the death of six pets and the injury of one pet.

Complaints
About Airline Service

In April, the Department received 878 complaints
about airline service from consumers, up 12.2 percent from the 782 complaints filed
in April 2009 and 9.4 percent less than the total of 961 complaints received in
March 2010.

Complaints About Treatment of Disabled
Passengers

The report also
contains a tabulation of complaints filed with DOT in April against airlines
regarding the treatment of passengers with disabilities. The Department received a total of 41
disability-related complaints in April, down from the total of 47 complaints
received in April 2009 and the 44 complaints received in March 2010.

Complaints
About Discrimination

In
April, the Department received 13 complaints alleging discrimination by airlines
due to factors other than disability such as race, religion, national origin
or sex down from the total of 15 discrimination complaints filed in April 2009
and the total of 15 received in March 2010.

Consumers may
file their complaints in writing with the Aviation Consumer Protection
Division, U.S. Department of Transportation, C-75, W96-432,
1200 New Jersey Ave. SE, Washington, DC 20590;
by voice mail at (202) 366-2220 or by TTY at (202) 366-0511; or on the web at http://airconsumer.dot.gov.

Consumers who
want on-time performance data for specific flights should call their airline's reservation number or their travel agent.This
information is available on the computerized reservation systems used by these agents.

The Air Travel
Consumer Report can be found on DOT's World Wide Web site at http://airconsumer.dot.gov.It is available in "pdf" and Microsoft Word format.